Pecan Pie a la Shusha

"This pie I always for some reason bake with my younger brother, who loves it. When I bake I always like to have people around. I think baking is something you should do together."

By: Shusha Biton

Pecan Pie

Crust
100 g of butter, melted and warm
3/4 cup powder of powdered sugar
1 egg
2 cups of flour

Filling
1 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup of dark brown sugar
100 g of butter
1/4 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 ½ cups chopped pecans
1 ½ cups whole pecans
1 tablespoon heavy cream

1. Prepare the crust. Mix melted butter and powdered sugar. Beat in the eggs. Add flour and mix just until the dough is smooth and combined. 
2. With your hands, work the dough in to a template (with loose bottom). Flatten out the edges of the crust with a knife. Pick with a fork and freeze until assembly.
3. Prepare filling. Preheat oven to 180 degrees.
4. Heat maple syrup, brown sugar and butter and stir until the sugar and butter is completely melted. Cool slightly. Important!!! Divide the mixture evenly in to 2 bowls - one bowl, add sugar and eggs and whisk immediately (hot mixture so it is important to work quickly). Stir in chopped pecans. Pour in to the pastry crust and bake immediately for 30 minutes, until filling stabilizes the margins but still soft in the center.
5. Arrange whole pecans with your hands on the baked pie (Be careful, it's hot). Mix all the contents of the second bowl with heavy cream and pour over gently (heat slightly if the sauce is not liquid).
6. Return to the oven to finish baking for  another 10 minutes.
7. Remove from oven, let cool (preferably extract the pie from the pan while still warm) and refrigerate for two hours to make it stable.

Serve:
Slice and serve cold or slightly warm, with ice cream or whipped cream.

Enjoy!

Chocolate Tart

Picture by Oren Cohen

"My life is all about cooking and baking, and I love sharing my life with other people."

By: Shusha Biton

Chocolate Tart 

Crust 
100 g of sugar
200 g of butter 

300 g of flour 

1 egg  

Zest of one lemon 

A drop of vanilla extract

Filling

200 g of dark chocolate, good quality, at least 60% cacao

200 ml cream

Day one: 

1. Mix all the ingredients for the dough. Work with it until uniformed.

2.  Wrap the dough with nylon and refrigerate over night. This dough is enough for one big tin, or approx. 7-8 smaller (the one on the pic is 8 cm).
 

Day two:

1. Heat the oven to 170C degrees.

2. Take out the dough from the fridge approx. 5 min before starting to work with it. 

3. Roll the dough and place it in a baking tin, not to thin. Pick small holes in the dough with a fork to prevent it form swelling (you can also, if ambitious, put baking paper on the dough and add rice to the tin. That way it will stay in place in the oven).

4.  Bake for 15 minutes in the oven until a nice golden color. Let cool.

5.  Melt the chocolate.

6. Boil the cream and add the chocolate. If you want you can add nuts, coconut, chocolate pieces, or even hard candy to the ganache. Mix well. Let cool.

7. Add the chocolate filling to the tin with the pie crust.

8. Put in the fridge until it's completely cold and stiff.

9. Decorate with nuts, candy or fruit. 

  
Enjoy! 

© 2012 Jill Schweber and Channa Waje, all rights reserved

Strawberry and Rhubarb Pie with Cardamom

I think I'm having a love affair with sour and sweet mixed together. There is nothing like a really good strawberry and rhubarb pie on a sunny day. I told my friend here in Israel that I'm so happy that the rhubarb season is here, because I waited all winter just to make this pie. She thought I was totally weird! In Sweden strawberry and rhubarb pie is very popular during the summer. I've added cardamom to the crust in this recipe just to give it a little twist. Yummmmmyyy!  

Strawberry and Rhubarb Pie with Cardamom

Ingredients
2 cups of flour
200 g of butter
2 tbs caster sugar
1 tsp of vanilla sugar
1 tbs grounded cardamom
3-4 stalks of rhubarb, cleaned and cut to approx. 2 cm slices
500 g  strawberries, cut in to two three pieces each depending on size
2 dl caster sugar
2 tbs potato flour

1. Heat the oven to 200°C
2. Put the flour, sugar, vanilla sugar, cardamom in a bowl. Add the butter cut into small cubes, and mix with your hands until the dough starts to crumble.
3. Place 3/4 of the dough at the bottom of a pie plate and press it out. Put it in the fridge while you prepare the strawberries and rhubarb.
4. Cut the strawberries and the rhubarb. Mix the fruit with sugar and potato flour.
5. Place the fruit in the pie plate and spread what’s left of the dough crumbs on the top.
6. Place in the oven for about 30 minutes or until the pie gets a nice golden color.
7. Take it out and let it cool a bit. Serve with vanilla ice cream. 

Enjoy!

 
© 2012 Jill Schweber and Channa Waje, all rights reserved